In every major city there are massive amounts of single people out there, says Janis Spindel. She should know: she makes her living from that fact, running a top matchmaking firm. The clinical way to defy the mate-hunting odds, as Spindel can testify, boils down to one thing: location. city with more than 200,000 people into our computers, then dumped in data surrounding five criteria: These rankings are universal, designed to be neutral in relation to gender, race, religion, sexual orientation or age.

With Valentine’s Day approaching, The Daily Beast thought it would quantify that part of the love equation, by examining and then ranking the 104 largest American cities, according to which are most conducive to finding, and keeping, a spouse. The only thing that matters is if you’re looking for love.